Born Digital? Mobile, mobile, mobile! Creative Commons licensed image via Youth and Media
Thoughtworks is an Information Technology consultancy which started in Chicago and now has offices all over the world. This year they’ve been running some interesting events called Quarterly Briefings which discuss topical technology, with the help of some case studies.
So for example, back in October some Google Guys ‘n’ Girls looked at Big Data. Following on from this, last Wednesday tackled the emotive issue of mobile with Move Over Desktop, Mobile is here! looking at agile software development using the mobile part of LastMinute.com as a example.
These events are fun, good for networking, handy for keeping abreast of what’s happening – all lubricated with free food and drink – what’s not to like?
Two of the speakers, John Crosby (LastMinute.com) and Renee Hawkins (Thoughtworks.com), offered lots of food for thought, more than I can document here. However, three things stuck in my head:
- Renee pointed out twenty-somethings often have the best ideas, innovation comes from Generation Y. Senior staff, decision makers and leaders in many organisations are often baby boomers or Generation-Xers. When they think of software applications, they often think of web first, then mobile. The current generation of undergraduates and graduates from our Universities were born after the invention of the web. They aren’t just born digital [1,2], they’re born mobile too, iPhones and Androids aren’t new – they’re just normal. Desktops and web-applications are old school to them, its tablets and mobile smartphones where all the action is – that’s what many of them are now growing up with. So it shouldn’t be surprising that Generation Y often have good ideas in science & technology.
- Renee also talked about doing agile vs. being agile: many organisations claim to be doing agile software development: they have the stand-up daily scrum meetings, kanban boards covered in post-it notes and practice pair-programming but they’re often just ticking the boxes – they’re not actually able to deploy software quickly. They look agile, but really they are doing agile, not actually being agile.
- John quoted Googler Eric Schmidt on mobile first from a few years ago, who said something like organisations should put their best software developers on mobile projects. Schmidt said this a while back, and many people at the time thought, “Hmmm, yeah maybe”. The current trajectory of mobile technology is proving Schmidt right…[3] despite the strange Android Engagement Paradox.
So when it comes to software applications, are you born digital, born mobile or born slippy? The latter drink too much and are usually Gen-Xers or Baby Boomers…
…and if you’re interested in attending similar events to the above in your area keep an eye on join.thoughtworks.com/events and thoughtworks.com/radar.
References
- John Palfrey and Urs Gassey (2008) Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives (ISBN:0465018564) Basic Books
- Sean McLane (2012). What Is It With These Kids? – A Generational Insight into Student Workers and Customers SIGUCCS’12 DOI: 10.1145/2382456.2382481
- Mary Meeker (2012) Internet Trends @ Stanford, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
O'Really? 